Archive for the ‘India’ Category

Maybe it’s the days on the dirty dusty roads in Delhi or my cold or the high altitude in the himalayas or a combination of it all, but my lungs just couldn’t take much more and went crazy again. So I ended up in a tibetan hospital. Just try and imagine a “hospital” where all the nurses are beautifully dressed in their traditional tibetan dresses and their long black hair in braids, the interns are young cool guys in converse, monks are running around the whole place (some of them in prayer) and there in a little room, there’s me in a wheelchair and a air-thing attached to my mouth. It’s a very small room, but there was no problem squeezing in another guy in the single room. The nurses open the lock of a pot (yes, a cooking pot) where she kept all her cotton supplies and in walks a dog. So me, a man in pain, a doctor, three nurses and two interns plus my sister and the dog on these tiny 2*2 square meters : ) And still it was better than any other hospital I’ve been too in the west.

It was only three months ago but I was so incredibly happy to finally reunite with my Nepali sister Devika. She’s one of the greatest and most inspiring women I met in my life. She’s a very very special lady and she’s also attending Dalai Lamas teachings in the northern parts of India so we agreed to go together. Her movie producing boyfriend Hamilton came down from Dharamsala too and it was a nice reunion : )

Majnu Ta Killa is a heaven compared to central delhi. In fact, anything is a heaven compared to the city that some gods -if not all of them- must have forgotten. This is in the outskirts and the neighborhood is actually a tibetan refugee camp. Well, I love Tibetans, I love Tibetan food, they are clean and calm (read not screaming) very harmonic buddhists and the energy in the place is just very calming. After getting my first plate of Momo’s (steamed veg dumplings Tibetan style) we explored the little area and the temple there. Everywhere there’s articles and printouts about the situation in Tibet (that’s just getting worse) and the monk who put fire on himself as a statement against everything. All I have to say about this is that I truly wish Tibet will be free someday. How can we call us humans and still contribute with so much suffering to the world. How can we harm each other this way? Free Tibet!!!!!

The city that never gets quiet. You are constantly surrounded by tuc-tuc’s, riksawshs, people is running around everywhere, sellers are running after you trying to sell you crap, everyone is trying to rip you off, there’s cows on the streets, there’s poor people sleeping on the side of the street, you have a dirty looking indian frying samosas on the streets, next to him is two men standing and peeing (yes peeing in the middle of everything) the dust is up in your nose and eyes so they are constantly itching. A family of five all smashed up on a motor-bike pass you with two centimeters. Ahhh, and the sound. Imagine 500,000 cars horning at the same time. The traffic is not moving. The small way you had to take a rickshaw between the metro and your place seems forever and it’s impossible to move. You give up and start walking. Everyone is screaming. The smell is just killing you. You finally get back to your neighborhood, in our case Paharganja, also called the back-packer ghetto. It’s very ghetto but very not back-packer. It’s all a practice in patience cause you know you might loose your temper and hurt someone any second. You don’t know to scream or laugh at the waiter who’s trying to convince you that 350 rupees is local price for a Thali when you know it’s actually 50. When you give up trying to book your own train ticket cause the online page just crash and you hang out at the counter at the train operator for an hour and you are negotiating about a price. And then you wait and wait. And then he looks at you like he just saw you and asks where you are going. Which city and when? How’s that even possible??? When you’re politely trying to correct the guy who just came in from nowhere and suddenly is in front of you in the line, he just looks at you and say “Welcome to India, In India no rules”. Gee thanks. Lesson learned.